Hirokazu Kore-eda

[colinr0380]

Rather boringly my first Kore-eda was the old US New Yorker DVD edition of After Life, although in light of the above discussion it might amuse some if say that I linked that film more with Juzo Itami's The Funeral! (Although it probably says more about how few Japanese films I had seen at that point of the early 2000s to have had relatively few points of experience with which to draw comparisons!)

In terms of recommendations, I still love I Wish (aka Kiseki aka Miracle) the best, though Our Little Sister (or Umimachi Diary) runs it a close second.

(And I should note that I've never really seen a 'lesser' Kore-eda film so far. The main comparison to Ozu I find is that any time spent watching either filmmaker's films, whichever they are, is pretty much guaranteed to be time well spent)

[Michael Kerpan]

I looked into Umimachi Diary's source manga -- Kore'eda's film improved on the source quite extensively.

[longstone]

After Life was the first Kore-eda I saw, it was available on VHS in the UK. At some point I ordered the Japanese DVDs of Maborosi and The Mourning Forest at the same time and thinking they explored similar themes of loss as I watched them in quick succession. I really like Umimachi diary and was surprised when I read some criticism of it, but I also love that Kamakura area and the Enoden train line, beaches etc. so maybe that helps. I find it hard to pick a favourite but Distance wouldn't be a good first Kore-eda although after a couple of viewings I really loved it. I wish more of his documentaries were available, I did buy the Cocco DVD some years ago after Michael had recommended it either here in another thread or somewhere else?

[colinr0380]

I would love to see that Cocco documentary (or music tour film?) at some point! Though it would seem that the best chance for that to have happened if it had been possible would have been back around the time that Arrow released the Shinya Tsukamoto boxset, since (following her work on Vital) Kotoko was heavily tied in with Cocco as the major collaborator on that film.

[Michael Kerpan]

Distance is a great film, i think -- but it takes work (and more than one viewing) to process. It is probably Kore'eda's most "different" film in terms of style. So definitely not a good starter film.

longstone -- were you able to follow the Cocco documentary despite the lack of subtitles? (I love Cocco).

[longstone]

Hi Michael, it's a while since I watched Cocco but I remember enjoying it and following enough of it to think it was well worth getting, I just dug out the package again and realised it came with a poster, photo booklets and a bonus CD ( it only seems to have one song on though ) might have to watch it again soon. I remember it being visually interesting with the beach scenery etc. also that she returned to Okinawa as part of the tour. I agree about Distance, it was difficult to get into on first viewing but I now think it is a great film, actually up there with his best, but given I like them all and recently binge re-watched Going my Home then maybe I'm just too much of a fan to not like it.

[Michael Kerpan]

Going My Home is perhaps not as well-structured as the movies -- but when I re-watched it last year I thoroughly enjoyed it (and it is nice seeing Aoi Miyazaki in a show directed by Kore'eda).

My favorite Cocco music video (not by Kore'eda) is the one she made with all the music club students of her hometown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCDVtozQRZY (she is so nervous at the start she can barely start, and then the kids up with her all go "Ganbare!" -- and I start sniffling, through most of the video).

[longstone]

Ah, nice video, thanks for the link Michael, slightly off topic but it seems there was also a full documentary available that the video presumably comes from http://dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=47044 have you seen that film ?
Back on topic, I find Going my Home a lot of fun but a Japanese friend seemed to think it wasn't popular in Japan, apparently too weird ? I have no idea if this is true or not.

[yoshimori]

Distance is a great film, i think -- but it takes work (and more than one viewing) to process. It is probably Kore'eda's most "different" film in terms of style. So definitely not a good starter film.

Ha! Agreed re "great" - it's by far my favorite.

As MK indicates, Distance is certainly his most challenging film in terms of narrative (there's little of the "helping" mainstream movies serve their audiences; we're just plopped down into the middle of a pretty complex situation and left to put a puzzle with lots of missing pieces together) and tone (an unusual mix of realism and enigma). [I'd suggest, though, that the visual style is just a 'pushed' version of those of the early docs, After Life, and Nobody Knows).]

All of which is prelude to: if you've got a hankering for that kind of thing, it (Distance) may be worth tracking down early in a Kore'eda exploration, since I can easily imagine someone with taste-as-severe-as-mine-is-often-portrayed giving up after a few of Kore'eda's more mawkish, later efforts. So, I'd say the first three dramatic features are essential, then maybe a couple of the early docs. Nobody Knows is probably the end of the first (and for me the only strong) period of his career.

[Michael Kerpan]

yoshimori -- Put me down as a fan of those later "mawkish" films -- just as much as the earlier ones.

My recollection is that Distance was shot by two different cinematographers -- one for the movie-ish looking parts and the other for the rawer looking sections.

longgstone -- I put off ordering the Heaven's Hell documentary too long -- and it seems to have gone out of print. I have seen extracts from this -- and it looked interesting.

I'm just glad i managed to find a subbed version of Going My Home. It will be interesting to see whether his version of the maiko/cooking manga (already partly adapted as anime) will fare better with audiences.

[yoshimori]

yoshimori -- Put me down as a fan of those later "mawkish" films -- just as much as the earlier ones.

I think I know your taste by now!

My recollection is that Distance was shot by two different cinematographers -- one for the movie-ish looking parts and the other for the rawer looking sections.

Do you know why you think that? I talked to Yamazaki (the DP for Distance and After Life and Kawase's Sharasôju) and Kore'eda after the release of their Nobody Knows, and, though we spent a fair amount of a couple hours talking about Distance, neither gave any indication of its having had a second DP. Both Distance and After Life trade in multiple visual styles for their multiple narrative layers, but both, as far as I'm aware, were planned and executed by just Yamazaki. Please do correct me if that's not the case.

[Michael Kerpan]

Maybe I am mistaking Distance for some other film of that era -- but I can't think of any other film that uses such disparate visual styles. Maybe I remember things wrong -- or maybe the publicity at the time was confusing/misleading? Whatever the reason, what I seem to recall must be wrong....

[vsski]

Has Distance ever been published as a BD outside of the Japanese edition, as I have never seen any other version.
And does the Japanese disc really have English subs as Blu-Ray.com claims?

[Michael Kerpan]

Has Distance ever been published as a BD outside of the Japanese edition, as I have never seen any other version.
And does the Japanese disc really have English subs as Blu-Ray.com claims?

There may have been a Korean release. The Japanese BD of Distance I have (which was part of a box set) has subs for the movie (but not for any of the extras).

[vsski]

This may also be a good thread to note, in case people do not go into the Vinegar Syndrome thread very often, that one of the Vinegar Syndrome partner labels Dekanalog has just announced a Blu-ray edition of Air Doll for release at the end of this month.

This looks like the same edition that came out in the UK a little while ago by Matchbox. Does anyone have the UK disc and can comment on picture quality compared to previous editions and how good the extras are (interviews, Cannes discussion and Making Of)?

[vsski]

There may have been a Korean release. The Japanese BD of Distance I have (which was part of a box set) has subs for the movie (but not for any of the extras).

Thanks Michael - and yes, the movie was part of a 7 film box set of Kore-eda’s early works. The individual disc sold to my knowledge is identical to the one in the box set, so it’s good to know that the film at least has English subs. I would wish an English friendly edition would be issued with context setting extras, although the events of the Sarin attack of the Aum Shinrikyo is likely well known in the West, but I never understood why this particular film was not published outside of Japan (maybe there are some licensing issues I’m not aware of).

[Michael Kerpan]

vsski -- I always felt that the Distance's suggestion that "terrorists were (flawed, troubled) people rather than 'demons' " was seen as unmarketable, at least in the USA.

[vsski]

Have to admit I never thought of it that way, but you clearly have a point there especially after 9/11 - although it hasn’t come out in the UK either, which has published almost everything else from him.

In general it doesn’t seem that Kore-eda seems to be considered very marketable in the US, as most of his output has appeared first in the UK, and much of it is still not available in good BD editions in the US. Magnolia never saw it worthwhile to release his Palme D’or winner Shoplifters on BD, La Verité and Our Little Sister are also not available as US editions (unless I missed it).

[Michael Kerpan]

Yes. I think Kore'eda is better regarded in the UK and mainland Europe than in the United States. The fact that Kore'eda (and Kawase) tend to get (at best) DVD releases for important films in the USA is very depressing (same for Kiyoshi Kurosawa's To the Ends of the Earth).

I suspect that the US interest in "shomingeki" (and other low-key Japanese cinema) is near a low point. It is only if you are near New York City that you have access to this sort of movie now (more or less invisible even in Boston these days).

[Computer Raheem]

Yes. I think Kore'eda is better regarded in the UK and mainland Europe than in the United States. The fact that Kore'eda (and Kawase) tend to get (at best) DVD releases for important films in the USA is very depressing (same for Kiyoshi Kurosawa's To the Ends of the Earth).

I suspect that the US interest in "shomingeki" (and other low-key Japanese cinema) is near a low point. It is only if you are near New York City that you have access to this sort of movie now (more or less invisible even in Boston these days).

To me, this speaks broadly to an issue I've noticed while seeking out East Asian cinema in the United States. Much of what gets distributed over here that comes from Asia (and particularly from Japan) is genre cinema, with very few spaces for non-genre works to be released and gain attention. In my opinion, this is a result of ignoring those more dramatic works that came before the 21st century, an issue that would only heighten with both the expanding popularity of anime and distributors like Tartan focusing on the more provocative, controversial works coming out of Asia with their "Asia Extreme" line. There was simply no interest from the distributors who had the money to give these films the attention they deserved. As wonderful as companies like Kino and New Yorker were, they only had so much reach outside the major cities. Thus, filmmakers like Kore-eda are simply cast to the side, because they don't fit the niche spaces that we in the US have allowed East Asian cinema to occupy (i.e. animation, action, extreme cinema, and canonical classics from Kurosawa and Ozu).

On a side note, I feel that this explains the differences in reactions from the public when a non-Western film gets major buzz during awards season (for example, the positive buzz surrounding Parasite on its way to Oscar victory vs. the outright hostile reaction that Drive My Car received during last year's award season).

[zedz]

Distance is a great film, i think -- but it takes work (and more than one viewing) to process. It is probably Kore'eda's most "different" film in terms of style. So definitely not a good starter film.

Ha! Agreed re "great" - it's by far my favorite.

So, might it be possible to divide Kore-eda fans into two categories?
- those who think Distance is his best film;
- those who haven't seen Distance.

In terms of the BluRay, I bought the Japanese edition on its own, and it has English subs.

And here it is.

[Michael Kerpan]

zedz -- I honestly would not be able to pick a "best film" by Kore'eda. I love too many of them too much to play favorites in this way...

[longstone]

I can't really pick a favourite either, I realise there is a division between people who consider the later films maybe more commercial than the earlier films, and I've seen different cut-off points mentioned for where the early phase finishes, Nobody Knows, for example, but Air Doll and Still Walking are quite serious films too and I wish Hana was more accessible in English speaking areas because I think that is a real gem. I like the fact I can choose one of the films to fit what mood I'm in, Kiseki or Umimachi Diary have a lot of detail for repeated viewings but I find them relaxing, The Third Murder takes a bit more concentration etc. etc. Yes, Distance became my favourite the day it clicked but on another day ...... In the end I'm pleased that all the films are available now with English subs but hope either the BFI or Criterion pick up the last couple that are only available on Japanese blu-ray. Maybe if the new film does well that'll happen? I guess a set of documentaries is unlikely but that would be nice too.

[FrauBlucher]

I was going to wait till I viewed a few more Kore-edas. But I couldn’t wait, over the weekend I watched Like Father, Like Son. Ironic that it was Father’s Day weekend. When the film ended I was just left frozen for several minutes. Even after I went to bed the story was in the background of my mind while I was sleeping. It was sad and powerful but not in a maudlin kind of way or with over the top sentimentality (Spielberg, I’ll get to that later). It gets to the core of the fundamental human behavior. I can’t imagine anyone having to make that choice. I read it’s Wikipedia page this morning and am not shocked to read that it got a 10 minute standing ovation at Cannes.

Kore-eda has quickly become one of my most favorite contemporary directors.

The Wiki page said that Spielberg has bought the rights to reproduce it. Let the forced sentimental signaling begin. He will make it so over the top sentimental. And the American audiences will fall for it. Ugh.

[colinr0380]

Spielberg was also part of the Cannes jury the year that Like Father, Like Son was in competition. I understand your concerns about the nature of any remake of this. It is a very difficult ethical situation to deal with and I do really like how the film tackles the 'nature or nurture' aspect without too many moments of forced sentimentality that might be easy to play up to in a remake, and which could easily run the risk of coarsening material that is performing a very delicate balancing act into something much blunter and which imposed its perspectives about the characters too obviously. Rather than 'nature or nurture', the film seems to come to 'nature and nurture' each playing a role in the upbringing of a child. Who can say whether if the boys had stayed with their biological parents that Keita would have been more outgowing and boisterious and Ryusei would have grown up more reserved and quiet? It is only the situation of having been swapped that even brings these questions to the forefront, as otherwise (despite any misgivings about looking different), it would be easy to say that the children were just taking after their parents, and emulating them and their social environment. But then having the boys swapped into their 'proper' families only shows how uncomfortable each of them are with their different environments, such that they each choose to go back to their other non-biological parents who had brought them up and taught them the ways of the world so far.

Serendipitously I also watched Like Father, Like Son again when it aired on television last night (it started at 1:30 in the morning and I was only going to watch ten minutes before going to bed, but instead stayed up until 4 a.m.! That's always the sign of a good film, even if it does wreak havoc on one's sleep schedule!), and whilst looking back I still generally agree with the sentiments of my previous comment (mostly just based on my reservations about the 'swapped at birth' premise), there are still so many wonderful moments to enjoy in this film, and I find it is growing in my estimations more and more. I particularly liked this time around seeing the way that Ryota notes that his biological son chews the end of his straw in emulation of his father, and then later Ryusei is getting involved with electronics with his games to match Yudai's tinkerings (much as Keita is learning the piano to be with/be like Ryota. Is the interest naturally occurring from seeing how others are behaving and wanting to follow suit? Is it encouraged/forced by the parent wanting their children to be like them? Or a mix of both?). I also love that final slow pull back shot moving away from the Saiki family's shop as the end credits roll.

I do however want to take a bit of an issue with the RadioTimes' brief description of the film that: "the children outshine their adult co-stars in this reflective drama": the child actors are wonderful in this film (and if you want more of that FrauBlucher you will find much to enjoy in Kore-eda's other films), but the whole of Like Father, Like Son is about the beautifully nuanced reaction of the parents to their dilemma through whose eyes we are mostly seeing the children and they are the ones experiencing the moral and ethically dramatic issues surrounding the situation, at least until the child-swapping happens and that final scene in which the sidelined children get the opportunity to express themselves by showing that they may not be comfortable in going along with the plans that have been mapped out for them without consultation, even if they have all been agreed between the parents as the best course of action to take. It makes it a beautiful contrasting companion piece to I Wish, which is a film where the kids take control of their destiny in spite of their parents, before coming to much the same conclusion that they cannot just hope that things will go back to the way they are but rather to be together collectively facing whatever the future holds for them.

And this time around I really got to focus on the character of Midori more, who gets some of the most complicated material to deal with, of not being able to have any more children after her complications during the birth only to find out that the son she brought up was not her biological one. She is constantly pushed into the role of having to respond to other people in the situation (a little like the children are), which makes the few times that she opens up incredibly powerful turning points in the drama because they provide so much heartbreaking new information about her particular issues in the situation. Especially the difficult preference for the son she brought up over Ryusei, who she gets dumped with whilst Ryota is working and does not really know what to do with or how to relate to a more boisterous boy except to keep letting him have baths! And I like that Midori gets on really well with the other mother Yukari (even somewhat siding with her over her own husband's cold pragmatism), so eventually it comes to a rather lovely conclusion that Midori both can leave her biological son in the safe and capable hands of Yukari without concern and she has found a much needed friend to be able to share confidences with that can make her feel happier too. As in I Wish, there may be a physical (and cultural, and economic) distance between the households but if they can keep the lines of communication open (lines of communication which never would have occurred without this somewhat contrived situation forcing them to), both sons as well as their wider families can potentially benefit from the interaction.